Scouting Report - Shaun Lane

Despite battling an injury, OSU commitment Shaun Lane has been having a very fine season for Hubbard. Gary Housteau had the chance to check him out this past weekend and files this report.

Yeah,
he's the son of Garcia Lane who roamed the Buckeye secondary more than 20 years
ago, but Shaun Lane of Hubbard High School earned the privilege to follow in his
father's footsteps and become the first member of the 2004 recruiting class of
Ohio State because of his stellar play on both sides of the ball for the Eagles.

The similarities between Shaun and his father, who played quarterback in high
school, are downright eerie. The quickness and elusiveness in the open field
with the ball in hand are the most glaring traits the two have in common. And
defensively, Shaun is very similar to his dad in his heyday as a Buckeye when he
was known as someone who could lay a hit on you in the open field as an All-Big
Ten performer.

Despite following Shaun's career, first at Youngstown Wilson and then at Hubbard
over the past two years, I realized the opportunities to see him play in person
were coming to an end and I hadn't had the pleasure yet. But he's been a fixture
on the local television highlights with his sometime dizzying performances that
usually net him 200 yards and a couple of scores every week.

And that was precisely the case when Hubbard took on Girard in a key conference
match up this past weekend that resulted in a 33-19 victory as Lane unofficially
rushed for 202 yards and scored twice in the winning effort.

But for a moment there, it looked like I might have picked the wrong game to
attend to watch him play.

On the very first drive of the game as Hubbard was marching down the field
courtesy of Lane on the ground, he got up from a tackle with a noticeable limp.

"My ankle's a little sore, but we won so that makes up for it," said
Lane after the contest. "Someone landed on it like the third play of the
game. But my offensive line did a tremendous job of opening the holes for me.
They make me look good so I thank them."

Although he wasn't really sure of the extent of the injury, and still wasn't
after the game, Lane played through the pain.

"I don't know what it is. I had to go in at halftime and ice it down and
get it re-taped," he said. "It was real sore but as I ran it loosened
up."

After
shaking off the injury, Lane hobbled back in the game later in the opening
quarter and proceeded to give his Eagles a 6-0 lead after racing around left end
for a 9-yard touchdown.

"It seemed like when I tried to run faster it didn't bother me as
much," he said. "But when I tried to cut and stuff, that's when it was
giving me a problem."

In the third period, Girard, behind the play calling of one-time Buckeye Nick
Cochran, took a 13-12 lead and the momentum looked to be shifting back their way
after trailing 12-0 at one point. But Lane quickly answered by ripping-off a
65-yard touchdown run.

"The referee came up to me during the injury timeout (a Girard player was
taken off the field on a stretcher) and said ‘Was that an unbelievably
spectacular run by Shaun Lane?' And I said, ‘Well, it's in the top five,'
because he just does it week-in and week-out," said Hubbard coach Jeff
Bayuk. "He's hurt. He's banged up in a couple of different places, and he
just keeps putting himself in there. He's such a competitor.

"A lot of kids in his position, knowing that they have a full-ride
scholarship to The Ohio State University, might back off a little bit, but he
just keeps putting his head down and getting that extra yardage. He's just a
great kid."

I've been very fortunate to see some great individual plays all season long by
guys like Ted Ginn Jr., Miles Williams and Raymond Williams, to name a few, and
the run by Lane was in that epic type of category. He started to his right, very
gingerly on his ankle, picked his seam, shot threw it like he was fired from a
cannon and raced down the right sideline. When he encountered the first defender
with an angle on him, he changed gears and threw him aside and then cut back
across the grain for like the final 20 yards. He displayed great instincts,
speed, vision and a desire to get into the end zone all in one play.

"I
can't say enough about the kid," Bayuk said. "He's so good in the open
field; he has vision; he makes unbelievable cuts; he spins; he's really some
something."

With the seemingly dearth of viable running back candidates on the OSU roster at
this time, Lane's performance against Girard allowed me to consider the
possibility of him carrying the football for the Buckeyes.

With his size being a consideration, obviously, the 5-10, 180 Lane showed the
skills of a true running back against the Indians, just as he has throughout
both his junior and senior campaigns. And after seeing Freddie Russell of Iowa
in person, there's no way that Lane, an avid weightlifter, can be considered too
small to carry the ball in the Big Ten.

I asked him if he was dismissing any chance of being a running back at the next
level.

"Not at all," he said. "I just feel like I've got to put on some
weight because Ohio State is a power-back team which runs up the middle every
play. So if I put on some weight I think I have a chance."

"I don't necessarily think he can be a running back in an off-tackle style
offense. But I think he can be a running back in a spread offense or a wide
receiver. He can scoot," the coach said. "Yeah I would think that he
would take too much of a pounding (off-tackle), but in an offense that spreads
it out and does finesse things, he's just very difficult to tackle in the open
field."

The OSU coaches haven't told him anything certain about his future as a Buckeye.

"They
don't really know," Lane said. "What (Jim) Tressel told me is that
they want players that can play on both sides of the ball. So that's me. But
I'll do anything, whatever Tressel says. In high school, I feel like a running
back, but it's going to be a totally different thing once I get to
college."

He can always fall back on his defensive skills just as his dad did went when he
went to OSU. Shaun has played both cornerback and safety in high school,
depending on the threat posed by the offensive opponent.

But for now he's focused on his team first and foremost. The victory over Girard
helped immensely in their bid to make the playoffs. After nine weeks, Hubbard is
ranked 7th in Division III Region 9.

"We needed to win," Lane said. "This was the first big one on the
road. We had to make sure we can play in the white jerseys because we're pretty
much sure we're going to be on the road in the playoffs. This meant a lot to my
future to just get out of this game with a win for the fellas, for the team. I'm
just glad we won."

But he admitted to getting a chuckle when he thinks about his future as a
Buckeye.

"Every now and then I just sit there and think about it," Lane said.
"I know where I'm headed, so I get excited, but I have to try to bring
myself back to the present time and calm down."